Hi friends,Hope you are well. My wishes and prayers that you have a wonderful time.I really wanted to appreciate all of you very much for your participation in the Easter celebration. I was really astonishingly happy to see the crowd for the Easter Sunday masses. This amount of people was more than even the crowd of Christmas. That is a great thing. You all deserve appreciation. This is a sign of a vibrant church and actively participating church. God bless you all.I would also like to thank everyone who sent me cards wishing me well for Easter and those who wished me through the social media. Your love and concern encourage me a lot. I cordially appreciate that sentiment. Thank you very much once again.Today we have the first communion for our kids. This is a great event for our parish as a family. We all need to celebrate it irrespective of whether any kids from the individual family receives communion or not. This is a family celebration. Not only this is a celebration, this is also a challenge, a challenge to set an example for our kids as to how a person who receives communion should transform and live. It is really a great challenge.This challenge can be really faced well only if we could strongly believe that what we receive during the Eucharistic celebration is really the body of the Risen and living God Jesus Christ. We need to understand, believe and reveal that faith by our way of life which should be Christ-like. That is the way we could face the challenge and be an example of a good Catholic to our kids. It is from us that they learn what is Christian life, it is from us that they learn what is Christian faith, it is from us that they learn what it is to be Christ-like, it is through us that they should learn and know who a Christian is. So, our challenge becomes more serious and more binding.Our reception of the Holy Eucharist most of the time seems ineffective. The Eucharist we receive doesn’t seem to transform us. This is a bitter truth. Where and what is wrong. The fault is not with the Eucharist, the fault is with us. There is fault in the very understanding of the Eucharist, there is fault in the way we approach it, there is fault in the manner we receive it, there is fault in the disposition with which we receive it, there is fault in our involvement in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. That is why the reception of the Eucharist is ineffective.However much of food may be available for us and be placed in front of us, if we do not consume it and absorb it, the food lies waste. Only when you eat it and absorb it the body is nourished and gets sufficient energy. The fault is not with the food, it is with the consumer. So it is with the Eucharist. If we don’t receive it with proper disposition and faith, making a good confession, that would be a waste.Congratulations to all the First Communicants and our prayers go with them along with the special blessings of the Lord.God bless.Yours sincerely in the Risen Lord,Fr. A. Antony.

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Pastor's ColumnPosted here is the weekly column featured in the bulletin of Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian parishes.